The UO Facebook App. = The Most Advanced A.I.

[Chad Sexington]

I've never played EVE, but the E3 news about the PS3 game, Dust 514, and its integration within the EVE world got me thinking... (The details about those games doesn't matter. Just know there is a crossover between the PC MMO side of things and the console PS3 side of things in the same universe.)

...But the crossover got me thinking:

What if there were a Facebook Application where people could take control of monsters in UO?

• There would be no special hue or icon signifying that the monster is under a player's control. They would just be controlling the monster from Facebook with a special menu for that particular monster's actions... maybe specific actions in addition to behavioral settings (aggressive, passive, etc...) for when they are afk.
• They wouldn't be able to speak (so no smack talking).
• They would take over control of a random monster in any facet on any shard (to minimize abuse for easy kill of those monsters by UO players, or ganking with monsters by multiple Facebook players).
• And all they would get out of it is a score or rank points which would increase depending on how many active hours they put in and how many players they've killed. The higher the rank points, the more powerful of monster sets they are randomly set to control. (They wouldn't get any special item and they definitely wouldn't get anything that could be traded to actual UO players. Maybe they would get a special badge to show off on their Faceobok page or something.)

(I suppose people could still abuse the system by being in constant communication with a buddy telling them exactly where they spawned *if they even spawned on the correct shard*, but it would probably be a waste of time to travel, instead of just staying put and grinding.)

(I also suppose people could still abuse the system and monster gank people in a dungeon *if they all of their buddies even spawned in the same location on the same shard*, but that would be very rare... and anyway, don't you think 4 dragons suddenly coming for you would be funny? Didn't you want better A.I. anyway?)


edit: btw, I don't expect this to ever happen. Just thinking out loud. Don't take this too seriously.

 

[aarons6]

so you think it would be fun to spawn as a monster run around for 2 or 3 hours looking for someone (without being able to talk to them?) just to get killed in 4 or 5 hits, cause what monster doesn't go down easy?


or are you saying these things should be boss like? like wandering peerless controlled by people? even then doesn't sound too fun to be on the controlling side.

 

[Espilce]

Player controled monsters seems like the easiest way to make them smarter. If done right, I think it would really make the game more fun to play.

Here is a similar monster idea:
Player controlled evil/godlike/monster templates. Only one per Shard at a time. Felluca only. After login and selection of shard, if there is no current player monster, a special box could pop up asking the player if they want to play a monster template. They would have accelerated skill gain and have access to all of the skills. Start off weak with very few hit points. But with every monster that they kill they would become stronger and gain Godlike hit points and more treasure. When they log out, the monster template, hit points, and treasure are saved and passed onto the next person who chooses to play the monster.

 

[Fayled Dhreams]

nice concept ...

minor flaw upon further examination ...

Assumes that "players" could represent as >equal to< "AI" ...
and yeah ... I am saying currently
with full knowledge of the "down grade" in the actual "machina AI"
(dumbed down npcs/mobs) ...

*wink*
but and however ... to DO IT ...

Tweak on the existing polymorph mechanics ...
bing!
players role playing sorta smart mobs ... draft a proposal ...

Ya gots (in place) child processes of "pack instinct" & "herding"
"command semantics" ...stop, follow, fetch, patrol etc ...
modify a new child process re: housing ...
think: temp nesting/territories ... "claim" a level in a dungeon
and if you maintain it (as long as YOU do) theses be the warrens of the spider clan ...
here be the abandoned castle of rats ... the valley of the troll clan ... roving packs of "the free range chickens ... we bite!!"
pay thy fee to be in the land of skull and cross bones, ruled by skeletons ... no doubt! ...

 

[Kalabas]

I think this is a great idea Chad.

 

[Viquire]

PvMP is one of the coolest of the available functions in LOTRO. It is a wonderful way to introduce pvp without large cost. In LoTRo this type of play has its own subshard on each shard with a large play area and a ruleset and consists of waypoint control.